


Silently Calling You Home

by Ma_skee



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Chronic Illness, Chronic Pain, Cute, Established Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, Fluff, Larry Stylinson Is Real, Protective Harry Styles, Sick Character, Sick Louis Tomlinson, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:15:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29778096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ma_skee/pseuds/Ma_skee
Summary: Harry is coming home from a trip and wants to take Louis out as a way to celebrate.Louis falls ill and feels awful for ruining Harry's plans.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27





	Silently Calling You Home

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I stayed up way to late writing this but the idea wouldnt leave me

He woke up to the buzzing of his phone. 

He didnt know where it was but he could hear it. It must be his alarm.

He had set an early one so he could fall back asleep, which he was grateful to his past self for thinking of because his head was filled with a stiff pressure that made it difficult to open his eyes. 

The buzzing stopped and he took a deep breath, letting himself sit in a hazy, half asleep state, fighting the urge to completely fall back asleep.

He must not have done a good job because suddenly his phone was buzzing again. He groaned and pushed himself up. There was a present ache in his hip from laying on the hard tile floor of the bathroom, his face felt puffy and tight, and he couldn't find his phone. 

He tugged his blanket into the air, hoping it was tangled up and would fall out. Sure enough, it clattered to the floor, still buzzing.

.. it wasn't an alarm, it was a phone call.

His eyes were too bleary to read to name, so he hit the green button and hoped for the best.

"...hello?"

"Good morning Louis!"

"...morning Haz." His voice caught in his throat and he fought back a cough.

"Are you ready to adventure?"

Adventure? What was he talking- oh. Oh no.

Harry had called him late yesterday afternoon, asking if he wanted to 'go on an adventure'. Louis was nervous to comply because Harry wouldn't tell what an 'adventure' entailed.

"Cmon Lou. It'll just be me and you, doing some fun little things. I swear I'm not trying to drag you to the woods to murder you. It's just been a while since we've hung out and I want to see you."

"You really can't tell me what the 'fun little things' are?"

"It won't be a surprise if I do."

"You said it was an adventure, not a surprise."

"...it's a surprise adventure."

Louis couldn't help the smile, or the warm feeling in his chest. Harry really had a way around questions. 

"It's nothing like skydiving, right?"

Harry's giggle made Louis bite his lip to keep from laughing back. He was trying to be serious here.

"No, no skydiving. I truly mean 'fun little things'. Like a date."

"Did you just ask me on a date?"

"I've been asking you on dates for years. Can you come tomorrow or not?"

"... yeah, I can come."

"Great! Oh, great. I haven't seen you in forever, I can't wait to see you."

"It's been 4 days." 

"Says the man who called me two days ago because you saw an infomercial that reminded you of me."

"Says the man who called me an hour after you left."

"Touche. Anyway, I'll be back at 9am. I'll drop off my bags and then we can head out."

"Sounds good."

After that phone call, Louis had gone back to cleaning the house for Harry's arrival. He made himself some dinner, watched an episode of a show, and gone to bed.

He woke up a few hours later, shaking from a frightening dream that he had already forgotten. A few deep breaths calmed him quickly and he lay back down and closed his eyes.

But this time he couldn't fall alseep because of a headache that had suddenly become eminent, accompanied with a side of nausea. He continued to try and sleep though, with the hope that he would wake up feeling better. But the nausea grew heavy and eventually Louis found himself grabbing his phone off the nightstand and dragging a blanket and pillow to the bathroom to wait. 

And wait he did. He wasn't exactly sure how long he sat on the bathroom floor, shivering from the cold tile, but the nausea was playing with him, coming in rolling waves. He'd be hunched over the toilet, feeling seconds away from throwing up, swearing he could feel bile rising is his throat, and then it would subside. It wouldn't leave, but he would feel safe enough to pull away from the toilet and lean against the wall behind him. 

When the nausea dipped, the aching in his head would replace it. Eventually he pulled himself up to the counter and soaked his washcloth under the water to lay on his forehead, which definetly helped. At least until he found himself leaning over the toilet again, nauseous to the tenth degree, salty tears dripping off his chin and quiet moans of agony pulling from his tight throat. He couldn't decide if he was more glad that he was alone or upset that Harry wasn't there to comfort him. 

Being alone ment that he wasn't going to be bothering anyone else, wouldn't be inconveniencing Harry because Harry would insist on taking care of him. On the other hand, Harry would be taking care of him, with his comforting voice, his gentle touch, his deep care and love for Louis. He wouldn't mind, or he would say he didn't, but at the very least they could cuddle together. 

Thinking of Harry ended up making him cry harder, because he felt so miserable and as embarrassing as it would be if Harry was there, it would probably make it better in one way or another. Then the nausea tipped to a new level of awful and he finally threw up, leaving him with a burning throat and heaving for breath. Slowly he layed down until the tile floor was cooling his burning face, where it felt so good to lay until he accidentally fell alseep.

"Louis?"

"Hm?"

"Are you ready to adventure?"

"...no." He rubbed an eye with his free hand "I woke up 45 seconds ago." 

Louis could hear the fond smile in Harry's response. "Precisely why I called you while I was still a half hour out."

A half hour? "I had an alarm set." 

He had set two of them, to wake him up nearly 40 minutes ago. Somehow he slept through both of them, probably exhausted by his sudden bought of sickness last night.

"Did you? Sorry then. Just excited to see you."

"Me too..."

A comfortable silence fell on the line, small smiles on both of thier lips. 

"Okay then, I'll let you get ready. See you in 30."

"See you in 30." Louis echoed.

"I love you."

"... love you too..." Louis mumbled around a yawn. 

The line fell dead, and Louis dropped his hand into his lap, taking in his surroundings. He was still camped out on the bathroom floor, blanket laying in a tangled pile and pillow with the case askew, hardly even on the pillow anymore. He felt groggy and gross, like long dried sweat and his clothes twisted all wrong on his body. 

Actually, he was glad Harry's call woke him. If he had found him laying on the floor like this, he definitely would have freaked out, understandably. But Louis was sure that no amount of persisting would make Harry believe he was fine, he didn't feel sick anymore. 

Well, maybe he felt a little sick still, but it wasn't that bad and Harry had planned out a day trip that he was clearly excited about. More realistically it was something they had already done several times and Harry was just excited to see Louis and get to do something they often did and was hyping it up to make it seem more fun. 

Honestly, Louis would prefer to do something they often did, like walk in the park at sunset (or even sunrise on the off occasion they were up that early) or wander through the local art gallery, pointing out their favorite parts in the pieces. Even making dinner to eat with a movie. 

But Harry was excited, which Louis liked and he didn't want to spoil Harry's fun. So he pulled himself up to the counter, one hand still protectively over his stomach, where he got a good look at himself in the mirror.

His face was puffy, tear stained, and the edge of the tile had left a crease on his cheek. Half his hair stuck out at strange angles and the other half was plastered to his head and his shirt was wrinkled. Man, what a mess. 

He turned on the shower, leaving it to warm up as he kicked the pillow and blanket to the far corner of the room where his shirt and sweats soon followed. The refreshing water helped marginally, washing away the sweat and grit. He scrubbed his hair and then his body, letting the warm water soothe the leftover aching. The steam cleared most of the pressure in his head and his throat no longer felt like sandpaper. Whatever had happened last night must have been a fluke. 

He turned off the water and pulled a towel off of the rack, glad it was freshly washed. He quickly dried himself off and brushed his teeth, getting rid of the remnants of the sour taste in his mouth. He felt fine, great even.

He gatherd up the pile in the corner of the bathroom, dropping the blanket and pillow off at the bed on his way to the closet, where he dropped the clothes into the hamper, which he gripped tightly to as a slow wave of dizziness passed over him. He gathered clothes to get dressed, including one of his nicer pairs of sweatpants because jeans sounded too uncomfy right now. Hopefully Harry wasn't taking him anywhere fancy. 

He wandered back into the bathroom to wash his face, ignoring the start of a headache behind his eyes. Then he slowly made the bed, straightening the blanket and fixing his pillowcase. 

He didn't mean to, but the bed was comfortable, even though he was laying on top of the covers, and an ache was settling into his body, especially his stomach. The sun was shining through the window, warming and blinding him at the same time. He didn't mean to fall alseep, it just happened.

He had only been sleeping for ten minutes when Harry pulled into the driveway, opened the garage and parked his car.

Harry decided he could grab his bags later. Right now he just wanted to see Louis. 

Louis, who wasn't in the kitchen drinking coffee like he expected. He wasn't anywhere on the ground floor. Harry stood still, listening for signs of life, but it was silent. Had he gone somewhere? No, his car was in the garage. 

So Harry headed upstairs. Perhaps he was in the office, answering some early morning emails, wearing his red headphones, unable to hear Harry's arrival. But the office was empty, the computer off and cold, headphones still plugged into thier charger. 

The bedroom then. The door was open a crack, so Harry gently pushed on it, causing it to squeak ever so slightly as it opened. Then he smiled and pulled out his phone to take a picture. 

Louis was curled up on top of the bed, using his hands as a pillow. The sun was shining around him in a square, showing the dampness on the blanket from his still wet hair, and almost putting emphasis on his chest as it rose and fell with his breath, making him look like a cat that had sought out the perfect place to lay in the afternoon sun that was shining through a break in the rain. He could see dust particles floating in the air, which aside from how gross dust is, made the setting look angelic. He was wearing his "nice sweats" - Harry didn't understand how a pair of sweatpants could be "nice", but Louis had always valued comfort over style while Harry was more on the opposite side of that spectrum -, which meant he had been awake long enough to get dressed, but he was wearing mismatched patterned socks and one of Harry's old hoodies. 

It was truly an old hoodie, one he'd had since he was in school. It had a few small holes and strange stains, but Harry couldn't bring himself to get rid of it. It wasn't like he had memories attached to it or it was given to him by a deceased family member. It was just a deep red hoodie with deep blue accents, and he just kept it, even after he outgrew it. But then he met Louis, which butterflied into them moving in with each other and Louis found the hoodie at the bottom of a box he was unpacking. Although it fit him perfectly, Louis didn't wear it very often. 

Harry set his phone on the dresser and toed off his shoes before crawling onto the bed and laying in front of Louis, who stirred as the bed moved. Harry studied Louis' sleeping face. It was so sweet, so carefree. He leaned forward and kissed his nose, hoping to wake him. When he didn't stir, Harry resorted to gently blowing in his face.

Louis' eyes fluttered open, the blue shining brilliantly in the sun, but causing him to squint. Harry shifted so he was blocking the light. Louis blinked again, finally registering who was in front of him and softly smiling.

"Morning sleepyhead." Harry whisperd, not wanted to disturb the quiet.

"Morning." Louis whispered, not wanting to bother his throat by talking to loud. 

"Did you miss me?"

" 'course." His eyes slowly slid closed again.

"You only pull out that sweater when you really miss me."

"Hm." Louis sighed, pulling in air to talk. "I really missed you then."

They lay together for a few minutes, just basking in the sun and each others presence. Then Louis sighed deeply and rolled onto his back. 

"I'm falling back asleep." He murmured. 

"Hm.." Harry propped himself up on his elbow, looking at the way the sun shone onto Louis' hair. Harry moved so that he was sitting over Louis, straddling his hips and looking down at him. "You look so pretty in this sunlight." He whispered.

Louis smiled, his eyes falling closed again. Harry leaned down to kiss him, first one cheek, then the other, then his lips, Louis tiredly kissing back, long and slow and warm.

... too warm. 

He pulled away, watching Louis's face fold into a frown.

"Haz?"

He didn't answer. Instead he placed a hand on Louis' forehead. 

Louis sighed. Of course. Harry couldn't have been home for more than ten minutes and he had already figured out Louis was sick. Of course, of course, of course.

"Are you feeling okay, Lou? You feel warm."

He sighed again. His throat started to feel tight, his eyes stung with tears behind his still closed eyelids. Harry could tell Louis felt conflicted about something, by the way he sighed and then by the way he kept swallowing. His fingers began tracing along the seam in Harry's pants. 

"I'm sorry." It sounded choked. He immediately swallowed.

"For what?" Harry slowly sat back, his arms growing tired from holding him up over Louis.

He swallowed again. "You were.... you were so excited-" he bit his lip, trying to keep his breath from hitching. "So excited about the a-adventure..."

"Oh, Lou.." Harry grabbed the hand on his knee and interlaced his fingers. "Don't worry about that. It can wait until you feel better."

Louis only nodded, still fighting tears. Harry kissed the hand he was holding before setting it down. He sat forward and stretched his legs out behind him, lacing his hands under Louis' arms, resting them on his shoulders and laying his head on his his chest. Louis responded by wrapping his own arms around Harry, one hand laying between his shoulder blades, the other slowly playing with his hair. 

Harry could feel Louis' breathing hitch beneath him. "Louis, it's okay, I promise. I was only going to take you on a scenic drive to this little coffee shop." He lifted his head to see Louis now had his eyes open, staring at the ceiling, tears dripping down the sides of his face, into his ears. 

"Finally got you to tell me." He whispered. 

"Cheeky." Harry whispered back as he used his thumb to wipe the tears. Louis closed his eyes again, sighing. Harry could feel him relaxing, so he lay his head back down, listening to Louis' heartbeat.

Louis scratched an itch on his face before settling his hands where they had been before, sighing again. "... I love you Haz."

"I love you Lou."

" I'm glad you're home." 

"Me too."

"Can't wait for the adventure."

"Once you feel better."

"Hmm."

The sun was so warm and comforting, along with holding each other in their arms. Louis fell back asleep quickly, and it wasn't long before Harry followed in suit, sorry he had missed Lou feeling I'll earlier, but glad he was home now and could take care of him.

**Author's Note:**

> Of your one of the people waiting for the rewrite of the "dear boy down the street" fic, sorry it's taking so long. I've been very busy with school and feeling unmotivated to write. Hopefully this will help me get back into it. Thank you for being patient and thank you for reading this piece!
> 
> Go drink some water if you haven't yet today :)


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